User Hobo's photos

I hope the GBB comes through unscathed. And thanks for the thorough description. It will certainly be helpful to those of us that have to help their spiders out of a molt some day in the future.

I can see her thinking "so embarrassing!" gah
She's looking good so far, hopefully she gets her energy back soon!

Protectyaaaneck said:

Bummer man, I've got my fingers crossed for her. I hope she pulls through!

Click to expand...

Thanks man. I think she'll definitely live, but she didn't exactly get through it completely unscathed.

crawltech said:

Nice work Dr. Hobo....good luck wit her i hope she pulls through!...i have to do the sergury thing too....not fun!

Click to expand...

Thanks. Yah, I remember that, with one of your big pokie girls. That looked a lot more serious than minde did, though when I first cut away all the exo, I did think of that post.

jbm150 said:

Wow, how nervewracking! I hope she pulls through with nary a problem. My girl had a couple of tiny spots like that under her abdomen following a molt as well; nothing seemed wrong and when she molted again, they were gone. I think they're just some setae that either didn't form or got stuck and pulled off during the molt. Good luck with her!

Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah, I'm thinking that's what it is too. I should have taken a closer look at it.

Hendersoniana said:

Beautiful X immanis! Looks huge . Sorry to see the GBB in that state, hopefully she's fine .

Click to expand...

Thanks. She is getting there. every molt she gets thicker and thicker legs.

mcluskyisms said:

Good luck with the C. cyaneopubescens, you've certainly done the best you can for her!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks. though I still think there's much more to do yet!

jayefbe said:

I hope the GBB comes through unscathed. And thanks for the thorough description. It will certainly be helpful to those of us that have to help their spiders out of a molt some day in the future.

Click to expand...

Your welcome. I only wish I was able to document it better, but you know, get the legs out first, pics later!

Crysta said:

I can see her thinking "so embarrassing!" gah
She's looking good so far, hopefully she gets her energy back soon!

Click to expand...

She's still looking pretty pathetic, but I'm hoping she will bounce back too.

[HR][/HR]

So last night, I did end up staying up until she flipped. I saw this and called it a night. She looked rather well.


But, this afternoon, after she started to move around, it became obvious there was some damage done.

First, some of her legs are bent in strange ways. The most obvious being her right front leg right next to the palp that had gotten stuck (right side). This leg was one of the ones I've seen that was bent the wrong way as she was molting. It's (ab)normal resting position has it curving all the way to the left side of her body, resting in between leg I and her left palp. She can move it to a normal position, but it always seems to "drift" there eventually. The joint between the femur and the patella is quite enlarged underneath (you can see it in the previous photos). I'm guessing it's because that is where the leg was bending the wrong way as she was molting. As a result, she seems to have some trouble moving it exactly how she wants it, and it seems to flail up high when she's walking around.
The good news is that I've seen several similar issues in her slings (the late molters who were "smothered" by the others) with wonky legs, and they seemed to molt out fine.
Here's another shot of her in a resting position.


The second thing worth mentioning is that her abdomen and carapace seem slightly off. I'm hoping that this is just because she just molted (I've had spiders look like that before after a molt and eventually regain normal proportions after hardening), but given the circumstances, I wouldn't be suprised if she didn't regain her regular shape.

So, I'm guessing that she just may be old, or it was a freak molting mishap (maybe that liquid was lubrication in between her new and old exo that had leaked out?). In either case, I'm confident in her surviving, but pending her climbing ability and general wellness after a couple of weeks of recovery, I'm thinking of moving her to a safer, less high tank.

What a bummer but lucky that you caught it early. She's lovely anyway, as are the rest of your collection.

Hoping for the best.

Geez! That's sad! I really hope she'll get better soon. Keep us posted, please!

Well don with her Hobo, I would not know what to do with T that I found in such a bad moult. Thanks for posting the technique used to release her from the moult. Best of luck with her now, hopefully she'll feed and become strong again... the lower height setup sounds like a good move.
All the best!

GregorSamsa said:

What a bummer but lucky that you caught it early. She's lovely anyway, as are the rest of your collection.

Hoping for the best.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Even though se looks funky, she's still funk-kaaay!

Storm76 said:

Geez! That's sad! I really hope she'll get better soon. Keep us posted, please!

Click to expand...

Me too. She's started to move around now, so I'll try feeding her next weekend.

matt82 said:

Well don with her Hobo, I would not know what to do with T that I found in such a bad moult. Thanks for posting the technique used to release her from the moult. Best of luck with her now, hopefully she'll feed and become strong again... the lower height setup sounds like a good move.
All the best!

Click to expand...

I would have agreed with you; It was one of those spur of the moment things. I hope she'll recover too.

[HR][/HR]

So, Molting season is in full swing!

B. emilia molted. Got a little bigger, and darker colors.


B. boehmei/baumgarteni(?) molted too, exactly one year later. She's punctual, this one!
She didn't seem to grow any though.






And h'up!


One of the H. gabonensis molted sometime too, was significantly bigger than the other two when she came out.


Here's all three. That cricket is screwed. Interestingly enough, the big female on the right (based on ventral) was the one who eventually got it.


No worries, the middle one had already caught one previously and was just being greedy.


Here's the P. irminia (still eating).


And the Acanthogonatus whatever, still eating, nearly two years with me and still no molt.

Oooooohhh nice H. gabonensis communal. I love it.

I'm gonna steal your P. irminia! She's frikking gorgeous! Curious when mine will molt again...at around 4", how often do they usually molt when kept normally and not powerfed? Half-a-yearish?

Hope the GBB feeds well and makes a recovery! Nice H gabonensis, love the colouraion and patterns.

Killer set of pics, Jason!....gravid P. irminia??...she looky pertty big??..

....and, Stormy...to answer your Q,...mine molt pretty regularly,...every 6months or so, yup...very fast growing sp.!

waiting on a couple of mine to double clutch

Storm76 said:

I'm gonna steal your P. irminia! She's frikking gorgeous! Curious when mine will molt again...at around 4", how often do they usually molt when kept normally and not powerfed? Half-a-yearish?

Click to expand...

Protectyaaaneck said:

Oooooohhh nice H. gabonensis communal. I love it.

Click to expand...

Thanks. It's a pretty sad communal actually (only those three). I wish I had room for something bigger.

Storm76 said:

I'm gonna steal your P. irminia! She's frikking gorgeous! Curious when mine will molt again...at around 4", how often do they usually molt when kept normally and not powerfed? Half-a-yearish?

Click to expand...

Well your will probably molt around every 4 to 6 months... but since mine matured two molts ago (first time I'd seen her gravid), I'd expect her molting to be more yearly. The interval for her last molting cycle was about 10 months. I don't feed my Ts a lot, and I don't provide much supplemental heating at all, so your milage may vary.

Hendersoniana said:

Hope the GBB feeds well and makes a recovery! Nice H gabonensis, love the colouraion and patterns.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I do like them, and I'm almost ashamed to say, better than the beees.

crawltech said:

Killer set of pics, Jason!....gravid P. irminia??...she looky pertty big??..

....and, Stormy...to answer your Q,...mine molt pretty regularly,...every 6months or so, yup...very fast growing sp.!

waiting on a couple of mine to double clutch

Click to expand...

Thanks. I wouldn't be suprised.
she was gravid previous molt but didn't even lay a dud. I haven't been feeding her a lot at all too...
Good luck with yours!

[HR][/HR]

Welp, M. robustum molted a couple of weeks ago. Another reminder to have a good look at the ventral even if you buy something as confirmed female!


Good news is I have a real female on the way! Pending her safe arrival and molt, he'll be having some fun.

Speaking of good news, the GBB finally started eating last week. She had little issue catching her food.


But, as you can see from the picture, she's having some trouble keeping the cricket all in one place and it kind if dribbles out of her fangs onto the floor. She does pick it up though, so I guess it's not that big a deal. I can't tell if it's her fangs, chelicerae, palps, or a combination of them that's the problem.

Anyway, a rare shot of the P. antinous out of her burrow, and looking very fat.
I haven't been feeding her that much at all either. Hmmm...

Good luck with the P. irminia Jason! And I'm glad you found a girlfriend for your M. robustum. Not an easy species to up and find a female!

Damn dude, that sucks hard about your robustum. But yeah, at least you were able to (hopefully) get a female for him. That's a good looking boy; man look at that weaponry!

Glad your GBB seems to do better and started eating again! Let's hope she pulls through to her next molt and gets back to her former self then! *fingers crossed*

Awesome M. robustum, if my appartment would stay cooler during summer, I'd maybe go get one of those Megaphobema spec. myself, but alas, it gets too frikking hot in here and that rules that species pretty much out as I don't want to risk a T.

Glad to see that ur gbb is eating! Beautiful P antinous, she is fat indeed!

Ooh, It's been a while!

advan said:

Good luck with the P. irminia Jason! And I'm glad you found a girlfriend for your M. robustum. Not an easy species to up and find a female!

Click to expand...

Thanks man, but she hasn't been paired, nor do I have any plans to. I think levi alone has enough pumping out to put am irminia sling in every Canadian household by 2013

jbm150 said:

Damn dude, that sucks hard about your robustum. But yeah, at least you were able to (hopefully) get a female for him. That's a good looking boy; man look at that weaponry!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I would guess he's impressive looking. I've only seen him from the side so far; he is still very much in pet-hole mode.

Storm76 said:

Glad your GBB seems to do better and started eating again! Let's hope she pulls through to her next molt and gets back to her former self then! *fingers crossed*

Awesome M. robustum, if my appartment would stay cooler during summer, I'd maybe go get one of those Megaphobema spec. myself, but alas, it gets too frikking hot in here and that rules that species pretty much out as I don't want to risk a T.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm hoping she does too, and it isn't a sign of old age.
I dunno, it gets pretty warm around here in the summer, and the male was around for the tail end of it, and he seemed just fine. I'll let you know how it goes with these guys over the summer.

Hendersoniana said:

Glad to see that ur gbb is eating! Beautiful P antinous, she is fat indeed!

Click to expand...

Thanks, and yes she is!
I finally got a decent pic of her, in fact.


[HR][/HR]

Anyway, the female M. robustum arrived in a pretty sorry state, and looked like she had a run through the barber college (packing wasn't the problem, Joe did a perfect job; I think she was just tossed around too much during her trip). This is the only pic I took of her, with my cell phone, ready to message Joe "Oy! She dead!" But, she started to go through the motions of kicking hairs after a few prods. She had life in her yet!


Anyway, she was barely responsive, and was curling all over the place. I opted instead to keep her in her enclosure instead of going the ICU route, as it was as moist as one anyway.
After a couple of days, she started to darken and gradually started to move around and recover. At this point I realized her lethargy was probably due to premolt, compounded by whatever she endured from the trip over here. By the second week she had moved to the predug burrow and stopped curling as much. Yesterday, I saw that ker back legs were bleeding from the joints, which was disheartening... and this morning, I woke up to this.


So I was thinking, "all that fluid she's lost! maybe she was injured in the mail this whole time, and she's gonna botch this molt! Maybe that's why she is so abnormally weak!"
And I had to go to work.
Longest eight hours ever.
Got home, prepared for the worst...































































And got this instead.

Well played, old girl.

From what I see, everything is where it should be, and nothing's leaking. I'll probably give her a couple of months, and try pairing 'em up.
I can't wait to see the spermathecae on this gir-

oh.

I hate when they decide to mangle everything after a molt! Dang spiders playing their spider games leaving us out in the cold.

Take heart, it looks like a big exo, hopefully you'll be able to make it out. Have access to a scope? Glad to see she arrived and molted fine, as I was reading I feared it wouldn't be a happy ending. Good luck with the eventual breedings!